Anthology and Revaluation

REVIEWS 229 or desire, enjoy the eternal repose of death. In anger he turned his back on "the :fiery haunts of men" and sought peace for his broken spirit in nature which sheltered him and answered his need. By others let great epics be compiled, Let others' songs in stormier measures flow: I sit me in the windy grass and grow As wise as age, as joyous as a child. April is his sweetheart still. We are grateful to the editors for these new poems which help us to reach a juster appreciation of the poet's feelings. None of them, not even the sonnets (from which w_e cull this image: To her forever like storm-stained ships To the old havens, all my thoughts returnReturn and lie close moored-to rest a while By some stored look or some long-treasured smile) has the convincing perfection of the best of the old ones. Lampman 's power of portraying the peace and beauty and perfection of nature, rather than his power of dramatizing love, wrath, admiration and heroism, will no doubt remain the chief distinction which ensures him an abiding place in the hearts of his count~ymen. II. ANTHOLOG¥ AND REVALUATION* RALPH GusTAFSON In an assessment of previous compilations of Canadian poetry (in the QuARTERLY for July, 1942) Mr A. J. M. Smith took the occasion to define the ideal anthologist: aHe is unprejudiced, impersonal , humble, self-confident, catholic, fastidious, original, traditional , adventurous, sympathetic, and ruthless. He does not exist." Mr Smith has now come forward with a book of poetry of his own collecting, and if, as an anthologist, such a paradoxical accumulation of epithets cannot be applied to him, Mr Smith in many respects fulfils his own definition. He has shown himself scrupulous and catholic, earnest without solemnity, assiduous and impatient. No Canadian is better equipped by temperament and -training to present the poetry of Canada with authority and per- *.The Book of Canadian Poetry: A Critical and Historical Anthology, edited with an introduction and notes by A. J. M. SMITH. Chicago, The University of Chicago Press [Toronto, W. J. Gage and Co.], 1943, $4..00. 230 THE UNIVERSITY . OF TORONTO QUARTERLY suasion. The publication of his book is a literary event of the first importance. It is a collection to be exported without apology; its appearance domestic makes previous anthologies of like scope and purpose, redundant. Canadian poetry has stirred- little interest outside Canadafor which there are many reasons. Mr Churchill can wind up a peroration on not unimportant urgencies with a quotation from Clough. Mr Roosevelt can meet a great occasion with Longfellow. Mr Mackenzie King could have 'looked into Cameron and topped the other two .poetically. There are economic reasons. American publishers cannot sell their own importunate poets. Periodicals are over-crowded. And yet many anthologies abroad are. intended for poets of the Engl_ish tongue though of different citizenry. How has Canada fared? Mr Mark Van Doren in the American section of his world anthology includes three translations from the Haida Indian.. Sir Arthur Quiller:-Couch has a solitary example from Carman. Untermeyer has an example from Carman. In Aidington 's recent survey, Canada's entree is Wilson MacDonald's Exit. Or, if the world is too big and books too small for Canada to claim poetic identity, if against the centuries of English poetry Canada's time has been too short, where ·is the Canadian in W. B. Yeats' Modern Verse? Or the "new" anthologies of Michael Roberts, of Selden Rodman, of Oscar Williams? Only Mr A. J. M. Smith himself is in Grigson's New Verse. Apart from the exceptional poem which may be taken up from the periodicals, the critic abroad relies mainly on material offered in Canadian collections. Granted that Canadian anthologies do occasionally fall into the hands of the curious and percipient American or English critic, it is apparent that what Canada has wished publicly to offer, non-Canadians -would not accept. The combined efforts of Garvin and his Canadian Poets, of Wilfred Campbell and the Oxford University Press, of Roberts and his flying colours, the Canadian Authors' Association and its voices of victory, fail. The inevitable and justified...